The Fruits of Russiagate: Chinese Seed Hysteria

SCMP: Those seeds from China: how a likely marketing tool fed conspiracy fears in the US

Pawelski said he was reminded of the US-China trade war that had hit many of his fellow farmers hard.

“I have no beef with China, the whole trade war doesn’t affect me at all,” he said. “On the other hand, I know there is tension going on, you never know what people might be trying to do. So better be safe than sorry.”

Pawelski immediately called the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a division of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and mailed the seeds to the federal agency hours later.

While some initial reports about the mailings raised concerns and conspiracy theories in the time of Covid-19, e-commerce analysts said the packages were probably just examples of “brushing” – a tactic used by online sellers (many located in China’s manufacturing hubs) to boost the rankings of their products on shopping platforms.

Negative social mood infected the establishment. All bets are off on where this goes should the decline in mood reach a new nadir.